Rio Grande City twins join STHS as family doctors

South Texas Health System Clinics is seeing double after twins Juliana and Jacqueline Falcon begin their journey in family medicine.

 

After graduating from their residency program with Doctor’s Hospital at Renaissance matched through the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, these sisters are making a difference as first-generation doctors.

 

“I think we made the decision in high school,” says Julianna, seated next to her sister inside the STHS Outpatient and Family Medicine Clinic in McAllen. “We started participating in organizations that were healthcare-associated. So we would do like shadowing or work at a nursing home.”

 

 

The two attended their freshman year at Rio Grande City High School before moving to La Grulla for their last three years.

 

Where Juliana dreamt of being a doctor since childhood, Jacqueline almost went a different career route: law. However, despite being skilled in arguments and debates, Jacqueline chose medicine as a personal field due to her introverted nature.

 

“With doctors, you work with people. Even though I’m introverted it’s a different relationship,” Jacqueline said, “It’s more private, more one-on-one instead of speaking in front of an entire audience.”

 

In 2017, Juliana and Jacqueline graduated their pre-med track from the University of Texas at Austin. During their time at UT Austin, the two joined the Joint Admission Program (JAM), where underrepresented students with economically disadvantaged backgrounds could get into a medical school.

 

After, they attended medical school at the School of Medicine at the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center’s Permian Basin campus in the Midland-Odessa area in 2021.

 

In 2023, they graduated from their residency program.

 

“We kind of just went straight through,” Juliana said. “No breaks.”

 

Although having multiple options and opportunities to accelerate a family medicine program, these twins took their time to come back to serve their home region.

 

“That was always our goal,” said Juliana. “We never debated it, like, ever. We’re coming back to the Valley. The sooner we can get back, the better.”

 

Jacqueline agreed, explaining that they took an additional year of school to do their residency program in 2023.

 

“We did the extra year to be able to apply for residency here in South Texas,” she said. “We still chose the route to end up back here because that’s where we saw ourselves.”

 

Now, they are putting their practice to work in the RGV, a place where they hope to meet the community’s need for medical care.

 

“We always wanted to come back. There’s a lot of need here for physicians, you know, poverty levels, low health literacy, all of that contributes to patient care and complexity in the Valley,” Juliana said.

 

Juliana and Jacqueline would also like to break medical stigmas and be role models for the community.

 

 

“Because we are close to the border, we see a lot of patients, you know, that get care in Mexico or are afraid of doctors or have certain stigmas about healthcare in the United States,” said Juliana. “Being that we are from the same place, we understand their culture and background, breaking down that barrier and understanding them at that level would be nice.”

 

Later down the line, the two would like to run a clinic together.

 

“We’ve always wanted to have our own clinic. That’s the dream — it still is the dream,” Juliana said.

 

However, Juliana and Jacqueline would like to develop a separate patient pool to become separate providers in the eyes of the community.

 

Both doctors are excited to see how they grow together.

 

“It’ll be interesting to see what she learns and what I learn and share it,” said Jacqueline.

 

They also hope their story will inspire others to pursue a medical career no matter their background.

 

“It’s possible,” said Jacqueline.

 

Juliana said that local medical providers are needed.

 

“Being able to have providers that are from your community, born and raised, I feel it’s a level of understanding that will break down those barriers and help with patient rapport and patient care.”